Plane crash into Austin building claimed local man’s close friend

By MIKE BROWN Reporter Editor

Larry Jackson of Rockdale holds front page that told story of tragedy that claimed his friend’s life. Repoter/Mike Brown
When Larry Jackson of Rockdale was last with his good friend Vernon Hunter of Austin, a Valentine’s Day lunch with their wives, they laughed a lot in talking about future plans.

Jackson is retired and Hunter was thinking about it. “We said ‘we’ve got all the time in the world’,” Jackson said.

Four days later Hunter was dead, the only fatality among 200 employees of Austin’s IRS facility, severely damaged when Andrew Joseph Stack III flew his airplane into the building.

“Just like that he was gone,” Jackson recalled. “It’s still hard to believe. We just keep coming back to that. He was the only one.”

‘Back to the window’

Jackson knows exactly what happened to his friend.

“He was sitting with his back to the window,” Jackson said. “He always did.

“The woman in the next office saw the plane coming and screamed for everyone to run but the door was closed and he probably just didn’t hear it until it was too late.”

The plane crashed into the building at 9:56 a.m.

“They didn’t find Vernon’s body until 5 p.m.,” Jackson said.

Jackson and wife Sandra spent all day Friday and Saturday at the Cedar Park home of Hunter’s widow Valerie and their family.